Sir Edgar John Forsdyke KCB (12 September 1883 – 3 December 1979) was Director and Principal Librarian of the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

from 1936 to 1950. Under his tenure, an attempt was made to clean the

Elgin Marbles The Elgin Marbles (), also known as the Parthenon Marbles ( el, Γλυπτά του Παρθενώνα, lit. "sculptures of the Parthenon"), are a collection of Classical Greece, Classical Greek marble sculptures made under the supervision of th ...

in 1937, which lasted until 1938 and resulted in damage to the collection due to the "misguided efforts" of the restoration team to

whitewash Whitewash, or calcimine, kalsomine, calsomine, or lime paint is a type of paint made from slaked lime (calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)2) or chalk calcium carbonate, (CaCO3), sometimes known as "whiting". Various other additives are sometimes used. ...

certain marbles under the belief they were originally

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

in colour.British damage to Elgin marbles 'irreparable'
, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

''.

Early life

Forsdyke was born in Bermondsey, London on 12 September 1883 to and Mary Eliza (nee Sainsbury) and Frederick Palmer Forsdyke. His father was a commercial traveller. He won a place at Watford Grammar and then a

scholarship A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need. Scholars ...

Christ's Hospital Christ's Hospital is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 11–18) with a royal charter located to the south of Horsham in West Sussex. The school was founded in 1552 and received its first royal charter in 1553. ...

in Hereford and then another scholarship which allowed him to attend

Keble College Keble College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its main buildings are on Parks Road, opposite the University Museum and the University Parks. The college is bordered to the north by Keble Road, to ...

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

where he studied the classics.

Career

He joined the

as an Assistant Keeper in 1907. Forsdyke contributed to

Arthur Evans Sir Arthur John Evans (8 July 1851 – 11 July 1941) was a British archaeologist and pioneer in the study of Aegean civilization in the Bronze Age. He is most famous for unearthing the palace of Knossos on the Greek island of Crete. Based on ...

' work ''Palace of Minos at Knossos''. He became editor of the ''

Journal of Hellenic Studies ''The Journal of Hellenic Studies'' is an annual peer-reviewed academic journal covering research in Hellenic studies. It also publishes reviews of recent books of importance to Hellenic studies. It was established in 1880 and is published by Camb ...

'' in 1912 and held the post until 1923. He served in the Royal Field Artillery in the British military as a captain between 1914 and 1919 in France, Macedonia, and Spain. Following his military service he returned to the British Museum. At Evan’s suggestion he finished excavating the cemetery near

Knossos Knossos (also Cnossos, both pronounced ; grc, Κνωσός, Knōsós, ; Linear B: ''Ko-no-so'') is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and has been called Europe's oldest city. Settled as early as the Neolithic period, the na ...

in Crete in 1927. After serving as Keeper of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the British Museum from 1932 to 1936, he was appointed Director and Principal Librarian in 1936. At the time of his appointment he was only the second person who was not a librarian to hold the post of Principal Librarian in the history of the museum. As tensions with Nazi Germany developed and it appeared that war may be imminent Forsdyke came to the view that with the likelihood of far worse air-raids than that experienced in World War I that the museum had to make preparations to remove its most valuable items to secure locations. Following the Munich crisis Forsdyke ordered 3,300 No-Nail Boxes and stored them in the basement of Duveen Gallery. At the same time he began identifying and securing suitable locations. As a result the museum was able to quickly begin relocating selected items on 24 August 1939, (a mere day after the Home Secretary advised them to do so), to secure basements,

country houses An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

, Aldwych Underground station, the National Library of Wales and Westwood Quarry in Wiltshire. Following the end of the war, Forsdyke invested resources in microfilming the museum’s collection, both to make it available to a wider scholarly community and as a preservation tool. He retired from his leadership of the British Museum in 1950. He died on 3 December 1979 at home of bronchitis exacerbated by heart disease.

Honours

He was appointed a

Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved bathing (as a symbol of purification) as o ...

(KCB) in 1937, and was an

Honorary Fellow Honorary titles (professor, reader, lecturer) in academia may be conferred on persons in recognition of contributions by a non-employee or by an employee beyond regular duties. This practice primarily exists in the UK and Germany, as well as in m ...

of Keble College.

Personal life

In 1910 at the age of 26 he married 42 year old widow Frances Beatrice Mumford Gifford. She died in 1938. The couple had no children. He married concert violinist Anna Amadea Leonie Dea Gombrich (1905-1994), the sister of art historian

Ernst Gombrich Sir Ernst Hans Josef Gombrich (; ; 30 March 1909 – 3 November 2001) was an Austrian-born art historian who, after settling in England in 1936, became a naturalised British citizen in 1947 and spent most of his working life in the United Kin ...

in 1942. The couple had two daughters when Forsdyke was in his sixties.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Forsdyke, John 1883 births 1979 deaths People educated at Christ's Hospital Alumni of Keble College, Oxford Directors of the British Museum Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath British Army personnel of World War I Royal Artillery officers Scholars of ancient Greek history Academic journal editors Elgin Marbles